After spinning out from Dell Technologies Inc., Boomi LP has gone on a generative AI journey. Given the company’s significant base of more than 20,000 customers, what comes next is of great interest.

“[This is a] company that has been around the block in iPaaS application integration, which, by the way, is never going away, but they had that relationship with Dell, they spun back out,” said John Furrier, theCUBE Research executive analyst. “This company is really poised … for potentially becoming the next ServiceNow-like company, where their presence in the enterprise is pretty significant.”

Unpacking Boomi’s gen AI journey was a central focus of the recent Boomi World 2024 event in Denver. The company finds itself in a unique position, according to theCUBE’s Savannah Peterson.

“It’s a really unique position to be in, 20,000 customers, 800 partners. Being at the epicenter of the integration game … isn’t always the most thrilling,” Peterson said. “When you’re in the middle of a huge technological evolution like we’re going into with AI, it’s actually a really prime spot to be.”

Analysts for theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, spoke with software engineers and data platform experts during the event. They explored how Boomi is positioning itself for modern AI product integrations and the various use cases in technical API integrations management. (* Disclosure below.)

Here are three key insights you might have missed from the Boomi World 2024 event:

1. Boomi is making moves with an AI vision in tow.

What became clear during Boomi World is that Boomi has an opportunity and is making moves, according to Furrier. There’s been a lot of mergers and acquisition activity lately, including the acquisitions of APIIDA’s federated API management business.

“They did an OEM deal with Vianai, which is the FinTalk application. Then they have the organic innovation, which is on the product side,” Furrier said.

But the key news was the launch of the new vision around the Boomi Enterprise Platform, according to Furrier. That involves the next-gen API management service with the acquisition.

“They put a stake in the ground there. They got the AI agent framework. They launched on stage and showed their Boomi GPT, which was launched last year, showing that agents, not just conversational AI, will be the end game,” Furrier said.

When it comes to the trusted data management piece of the puzzle, what the company is doing is actually pretty smart, according to Furrier. It involves threading the key elements together.

TheCUBE’s Savannah Peterson and John Furrier discuss Boomi’s latest announcements during Boomi World 2024.

“You’ve got to have good governance. They’re nailing that with the data management and the agent framework tied in there,” Furrier said. “The API management is critical, because 80% of all traffic is run through APIs. It might even be more than that, but that’s basically the internet.”

The integration-platform-as-a-service sector is going through a significant shift right now, according to Doug Henschen, vice president and principal analyst of Constellation Research Inc. It involves leveraging AI to enhance automation and data management capabilities.

“Everybody in the IPaaS space is stepping up on API management, but you also see the folks with an app focus stepping up,” Henschen said. “The AI economy is the API economy. That’s why that’s really important.”

All told, it represents a vision to simplify IT infrastructure with advanced AI and APIs. It’s about responding to what is a fractured software world, according to Steve Lucas (pictured), chief executive officer of Boomi.

“The issue that we’re trying to solve, it’s really quite simple,” Lucas said. “Customers have tons of applications, databases, APIs. That’s an integration challenge. Why would you solve that integration challenge with a dozen integration products? It doesn’t make any sense.”

For Boomi, it’s a single solution for integration and automation, according to Lucas. That, of course, makes sense on paper, he added.

“Proof’s going to be in the pudding. But we made some big moves yesterday and announced some acquisitions,” Lucas said. “We’ve also expanded our strategy into data management, as well as AI and the like. But … it’s more than iPaaS.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Steve Lucas:

2. Boomi’s partner ecosystem is being viewed as key.

AI continues to play an increased role when it comes to the evolution of business operations. For Boomi, that goal includes various partnerships, including one with Infosys Ltd. that seeks to help organizations manage the rise of autonomous agents by consolidating integration and automation systems on one platform.

“We’re helping organizations see that future, that it’s not just apps and databases and APIs. Very important. That’s today here and now, but add agents into that mix and it gets infinitely more complex,” Lucas said. “You can’t really tackle that future without having a good grasp on your current today. Consolidating different integration and automation systems on one platform. That’s what we’ve been partnering on amongst many things.”

It’s a combination of two things, according to Kapil Goel, associate VP and global head of BPM, API and digital process at Infosys. First, it involves a tighter governance and strategy around it, he noted.

Boomi’s Steve Lucas and Infosys’ Kapil Goel and Suman Mishra talk to theCUBE about how AI continues to play an increased role when it comes to the evolution of business operations.

“At the same time, giving a lot of freedom and flexibility to the different business units for democratization of development as well. So, it has to be a fine balance of both these things,” he said.

Boomi has also partnered with Apica Inc. for improved runtime observability and workflow health management. Apica is a data management platform, and the partnership with Boomi involves observability data managed through the platform, according to Ranjan Parthasarathy, chief product and technology officer of Apica.

“It works with existing Boomi environments with customers that are already running workflows,” he said. “Today, customers run complex workflows on mission-critical applications inside the Boomi platform. What we are offering as part of RTO is the ability to now look inside these environments where we gather metrics around health and performance to make sure that these critical systems are always up and running.”

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Steve Lucas, Kapil Goel and Suman Mishra, senior director at Infosys:

3. There are several use cases to study.

Prior to the kick-off of Boomi World, one of the major areas of interest was the various use cases in technical API integrations management. One of those involves Nature Fresh Farms Inc., which uses Boomi middleware to automate invoice matching, OCR scanning and paperless processes.

When the fault department was eliminated, productivity went up, according to Keith Bradley, vice president of information technology at Nature Fresh Farms. Plus, accountability was easier, he added.

Nature Fresh Farms’ Keith Bradley (at left) discusses the company enhancing efficiency with Boomi middleware.

“Now, it was a very manual process, where we knew exactly who approved this invoice, who did it. And it was a great feeling,” Bradley said. “Actually, the first year after we did this, [our] auditors came in and said, ‘Hey, this is a great system. We love how you guys have done this now and made it so much smoother.’ It’s the little things like that, that made us really appreciate how Boomi allowed us to start to do this and start to think outside the box.”

Another use case involves the Australian Red Cross, which provides emergency and disaster relief and community support. The organization has been through a significant digital transformation over the past 12 to 18 months, according to Brett Wilson, chief information officer of the Australian Red Cross.

“We did seven platforms in 12 months. Quite an optimistic target, but we’ve achieved it and come out the other side now,” Wilson said. “We’re really focusing around how do we leverage off emerging technologies that are coming through, such as AI.”

With Boomi, the organization completed its digital transformation. It’s now completely in the cloud, something that is essential, Wilson noted.

“One of the key things for us is we want a platform approach, so for us it was around how do we get more out of a platform rather than best of breed,” he said.

Here’s theCUBE’s complete video interview with Keith Bradley and Ed Macosky, chief product and technology officer of Boomi:

To watch more of theCUBE’s coverage of the Boomi World 2024 event, here’s our complete event video playlist:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Boomi World. Neither Boomi, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE